Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

Luke 6:12-16; Matthew 6:5-15

Preached by Rev. Robert Matlack
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Years ago, in one of Bill Kean's "Family Circus" cartoons one of the little girls is explaining to her even younger brother, "We can talk to God anytime we want," she says, pointing her finger straight up, "‘cause God has a toll-free number."

Think about that, one of the great gifts that we have received is that we can talk to God anytime we want. We never get a busy signal... or a bill. In all fairness I have to say that we don't always get the answer that we want, but we do always get listened to and heard. We are always loved and cared for. God is always there for us, - even though we aren't always there for God.

In our text from the gospel of Matthew we are reminded that the three chief pillars of Jewish piety in the first century were alms, fasting, and prayer. These same three also became established as important parts of Christian piety, but with a difference. In Jewish practice, some people did them ostentatiously. They wanted everyone to know how pious they were. Jesus instructed His followers: "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you they have already been paid in full. But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you."

Prayer is an intimate encounter between us and God. If we are praying to impress others or to put on a show, we are not truly opening ourselves to God. When we pray we need to focus ourselves on God. The words that we use are far less important than our intent. For God knows us better than we know ourselves. Even when our words are inadequate, God will understand what it is that we mean to say.

There's an old Jewish legend that tells about a little farm boy who had been left in an orphanage at an early age and was unable to read. But he had inherited a large heavy prayer book from his parents. On the Day of Atonement he brought the prayer book into the synagogue and laid it on the desk. He then cried out, "Lord of Creation, I do not know how to pray. I do not know what to say. So I give you the entire prayer book."

In Matthew we're told that Jesus said, "When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him." There's a world of difference between a young boy saying, "Lord of Creation I do not know how to pray...So I give you the entire prayer book", and someone who expects that God will pay attention because of the length of their prayer. There's a real difference between this young boy who freely and honestly offers God what he has, and someone who drones on and on with meaningless words, who is only trying to impress God with the length of his prayer. The difference is that the young boy's prayer was offered in genuine faith, and that's how God received it.

You see that's one of the real keys to prayer. We don't have to know fancy words. We don't have to have our prayers polished to perfection so that they're like an essay which we might hand in to our English teacher. Sometimes in our prayers we'll struggle for words or for the right word, because we don't know how to say something or even what to say about something... all of that is okay as long as our prayers are offered in faith.

The key to prayer is that prayer is not offered to impress others, and by the same token prayer isn't offered to impress ourselves. True prayer is offered as a way of speaking to God - speaking and listening, the listening being an important part that sometimes we forget. We can be so wrapped up in what we want to say, in what we feel is important, that we forget that we need to listen to and for God. One minister said it this way, "Silence is the language God speaks, and everything else is a bad translation."

When Jesus walked here on earth, He was closer to God than we can even imagine ever being. It was a closeness that was so real that Jesus said things like, "I and the Father are one". That closeness was nurtured by Jesus' faithfulness in praying. Prayer was a regular part of His daily life. Prayer was the part that made everything else work, for it was in prayer that Jesus was renewed and experienced God's constant presence with Him.

Some of those prayers are recorded in the Bible. There are well known and familiar words such as The Lord's Prayer, which Jesus offers to us as a model of what our prayers might be like. There are other times when Jesus was about to face an important decision, and the first thing that He did was to pray. In our text from Luke we are reminded of one such time. Jesus was about to choose the twelve apostles - those who would be His closest followers. This was obviously a crucial decision, and Jesus prepared for it this way: "At that time Jesus went up a hill to pray and spent the whole night praying to God."

When we face important decisions or crucial moments in our lives we prepare in a variety of ways: we gather the information that we need, we talk about it with those whose judgment we trust, we might even try to get a good night's sleep the night before the big moment, but Jesus reminds us of the most important way of all that we can prepare ourselves to make important decisions or to face crucial moments. The most important way of all that we can prepare ourselves for those times is with prayer. For in prayer we give up control - in prayer we move from trying to control God to letting God direct us.

When Jesus prepared for a major decision or a difficult task it was by allowing God to direct Him. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He was crucified as Jesus is praying in grief and anguish he prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me! Yet not what I want, but what you want." Jesus knew what He wanted. He didn't need to pray to find that out. Rather the purpose of His prayer was to allow God to work through Him and direct Him, to make sure that what happened, that what He did, was what God wanted Him to do.

In this busy and hectic world in which we live, we need to pray more than ever before. You see, the busier our lives get, the more we need to pray. I say that because the busier our lives get, the less time that we have to let ourselves feel and really explore what God wants for us. The busier our lives are, the less time we have to just sit quietly and reflect, the less time we spend just listening and trying to hear. The busier our lives get, the more it seems that the quietness of God's voice is drowned out by the many sounds of our busy lives.

When that happens, and I suspect that there are times when it happens to all of us, when that happens, then we need prayer more than ever. We need to make time to pray - to pause in the midst of our hectic schedules, to pause to share what is happening, to share what we're concerned about and afraid of and excited about, and most of all to just listen for God, that we might allow God to direct us in the midst of the busyness of our lives. For all of those activities and busyness will be empty if they are leading us away from God. While on the other hand, our lives will be full to the overflowing if we are allowing God to direct and work through us.

Let us pray:
Loving God, we would offer our very lives to You. Receive them and guide us, that we might be faithful in reaching out to You. Our lives are busy and hectic, but all of those things that keep us so busy are empty indeed without You. Fill us with Your Presence and Your love. Work through us today and everyday, and remind us that we need to stop and listen in silence, for we so desperately need Your guidance as to how we live this day..

Amen.